Western Animation /
The Croods

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Set in the prehistoric era, The Croods is a CG animated family film from DreamWorks Animation, about an overprotective caveman father named Grug whose one rule among his family is to never leave their cave. When his daughter Eep grows into a curious teenager, she wanders outside. Encroaching earthquakes destroy their home while the family is outside, forcing them to seek shelter elsewhere. Grug's philosophy is threatened when they must venture out into the world to find another home and brave dangerous creatures. They encounter a more evolved and intelligent male teenage caveman named Guy, who creates several useful inventions, and warns that the world is ending.

Always Someone Better: Before Guy shows up, Grug is the best at keeping the family alive. Until they reach the mountain peak, and need Grug's strength to hurl them over the chasm to safety. He later comes up with his own idea to get himself across, without Guy's help.

Zigzagged at first. Guy was at first both attracted and terrified of her. Didn't help that Eep kept on manhandling him throughout the first half of of the movie.

Ambiguously Brown: While all the voice actors are Caucasian, the character design of all the characters is racially vague enough so that they literally could be viewed as the ancestors of pretty much everyone.

Angrish: This is Grug's frequent response to new things that frustrate him.

Animal Motif: Eep seems to have this tiger thing going, especially where Guy is concerned.

There's also "Never not be afraid!" Then in the end he changes his saying to "Never be afraid."

"Let's go there!"

"To Tomorrow!"

Not so much as words, but a gesture. At points, the major characters raise their hands to the sun, representing a yearning for lives worth living. Even Grug gets in on this towards the climax, which becomes his moment of HeelFace Turn. He even overrides Ugga when she starts to push the family to look for a cave.

Art Shift: The movie starts out with Eep presenting her life over a series of 2D cave drawings.

Badass Normal: Each of the Croods, from Grug down to Sandy, can hold their own physically with most animals and are much stronger than they look, mostly due to having to literally fight other creatures for food each day.

Big Beautiful Woman: Ugga and Eep are designed as thick, broad and heavy set and they are perfectly happy as such.

Big Eater: Eep and her entire family. Done for laughs when they roast a giant turkey-saur for dinner; Eep grabs a leg that's the size of her body and horks down the meat in under a second. We don't see it, but we see Guy seeing it, who is absolutely horrified at how she did it. They also have no concept of "Leftovers", because they're used to having so little food that they eat all they can when they can.

Brains Evil, Brawn Good: This is basically Grug's mantra. He later realizes that brain AND brawn are good and necessary for survival.

Brainy Brunette: Guy, in comparison to the Croods (some of whom are also brunette).

Bratty Teenage Daughter: Eep, who thinks her family are a pain to be around, strains against her father's rules and sleeps alone while the others gather in a bundle.

Buffy Speak: At one point, Guy takes Eep out hunting and they try to catch an enormous ostrich-like bird by propping up a fake female one while they hide beneath it behind a rock as a distraction so that it steps in the circle of rope on the ground that he's set. The creature doesn't step in the spot and Eep responds "Uh, it didn't step in your trappy thing."

Butt-Monkey: Guy has this role at the beginning, then Grug takes his place for a good chunk of the film. Also, Thunk throughout. The white liyote seems to be this within its pack.

Cats Are Mean: Played straight with Chunky until the end of the film where he becomes Grug's pet.

Earn Your Happy Ending: The Croods must face their worst fears in an incredible dangerous land, change their entire philosophy of their lives, face the probable loss of Grug in a moment of crisis to become joyfully adventurous explorers of their world.

Expository Hairstyle Change: Team Mom Ugga wears her hair tightly up at the start of the film, symbolizing the family's adherence to Grug's strict rules. After using Guy's method of using her brain to avoid danger, she wears her hair loose, symbolizing the family letting go of their old fears and rules.

Face Your Fears: A central theme of the film where a cave family must brave the outside world and its dangers.

Gas Cylinder Rocket: A few million years short of a real gas cylinder, but Grandma manages to achieve the same effect when she accidentally sets some giant corncob-like plants on fire. The oversized kernels start popping, sending the cobs shooting off in all directions.

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Keep in mind, reproduction was a much higher priority to them than it is to us. And there was no age of consent. With that in mind, what do you think went through Grug's head any of the several times he saw Guy and Eep in...intimate positions?

Grounded Forever: After a father/daughter argument near the beginning, Grug threatens to keep Eep in the family cave "Until you're older than... y'know... (gestures to Gran) her!"

Heroic Sacrifice: Grug volunteers to throw everyone across a crevasse, knowing he will have to stay behind.

Hidden Depths: The Croods may be primitives, but they are not stupid as the below trope illustrates.

Historical In-Joke: The Interspecies Romance between Eep and Guy is likely one to the idea that Cro Magnons and Neanderthals interbreeding contributed to the eventual genesis of Homo Sapiens. Even today, many people possess genetic markers of Neanderthal genes in their DNA, indicating an ancestry of couples like them.

Innocent Bigot: Guy appears to have shades of this at first, labeling the Croods as 'cavies', calling them "practically animals", and being visibly shocked to learn that Eep is one of them. He seems to get over it pretty quickly, though.

Instant Roast: An ostrich-like predatory bird is slammed into the ground by a snare, leaving a carcass that looks just like a roast turkey. Although that is obviously a time cut.

Letting Her Hair Down: While not strict or uptight herself, Team Mom Ugga wearing her hair up in a tight weave symbolizes the family's adherence to Grug's strict rules. When the family embraces Guy's more casual, creative approach to solving problems, she lets her hair loose accordingly.

Light Is Good: A major symbol of the movie is the sun (fire is commonly referred to as little suns, and starlight is also compared to the sun), which to the Croods and Guy especially is their greatest symbol of hope.

Man-Eating Plant: Ugga, Sandy, and Gran have to get past a whole patch of huge, carnivorous flowers while travelling through the maze of canyons.

Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Eep is a strong and aggressive girl while Guy is a humble boy who is fairly skinny and prefers to use brains over brawn.

Matchlight Danger Revelation: While trapped inside a cave, Grug manages to light a fire, revealing Chunky right behind him. Chunky blows out the fire...then lights it up again because he's just as scared of the dark as Grug.

Mr. Fanservice: Guy, the only male with an "modern human" body design.

Mundane Object Amazement: The Croods' reaction to "meeting" fire. Eep's initial fascination with glowing cinders blown from Guy's torch is played for Heartwarming rather than laughs, and sells it well.

Averted frequently. All of Grug's cautionary tales end in some variation of "and then he DIED!"

When Guy first meets the Croods, he tells Eep (not knowing the she is a Crood too), that he'll have to "take their lives".

Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer portrays Eep as The Ditz. She's not, she's actually rather intelligent and the first to want progress instead of keeping things as they were.

No Antagonist: Really, the only danger in the movie is something Guy likes to call "the end of the world" (which the intro heavily implies to actually be the beginning stages of post-Pangaea continental drift). But what a danger it is.

Which makes this an example of a Man vs. Nature plot, for the overarching plot, while the Main vs. Impact story is whether or not to embrace change, and various characters have major or minor arcs about overcoming their limiting mindsets (e.g. Thunk realizing that he can do things for himself and doesn't need to fearfully wait to be told how to act). The characters certainly butt heads a lot, but there's no villain, and even a few of the seeming baddies become allies by the end.

No One Gets Left Behind: When Grug and Chunky enact their desperate plan to escape the apocalypse, Grug sees various forlorn creatures facing certain doom and risks everything to save them too.

Non-Malicious Monster: Nearly all of the wildlife. Even the big ones, despite their outward ferocity, are all fairly intelligent, and just like the Croods, are trying to survive. When they attempt to learn and understand these exotic animals, they find most of them are docile and/or tamable.

Grug thinks Guy's destination is too far away and dangerous and does not want to risk the journey — and then his mother-in-law says she probably won't survive and Grug becomes Guy's number one supporter.

Later, Grug is upset over his family finding Guy's ideas amazing, as his philosophy has always been to distrust new things. Then Gran tells his wife that if Grug ever has an idea, she'll probably have a heart attack and die. Cue Grug trying to come up with new things.

The Outside World: Eep hates being confined to the cave. Exploring and navigating the Outside is what she wants most, and a disaster forces the family to venture out into it. It turns out to be the right choice.

Papa Wolf: Grug outright states that it's his job to protect the family and keep them safe from danger. This comes to a head when he throws them all (including Guy) across the cliff to safety.

Shortly after, we can see that he's resigned himself to his fate, because as long as his family is safe, he's okay with dying. But the instant he thinks someone's in danger, he immediately comes up with a way to get back to them, because imminent death is no excuse for this man.

Ridiculously Cute Critter: Many of the wildlife count, special mention to the conjoined-tail mice and the miniature elephants.

Standouts include Belt, and arguably, Sandy.

Riding into the Sunset: The Croods, once fearfully hiding in a cave all the time, now are the world's first family of explorers as they ride full tilt into the sunset at the end.

Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Guy shows the family the night sky, they marvel at at it being filled with "more suns in the sky than you can count." Technically correct in that stars are similar to our sun, but seem smaller because they're farther away. However, since they're cavemen that haven't learned to make fire or stayed out after sunset, they call every glowing thing they see (such as Guy's fire) a "sun."

Scared of What's Behind You: After getting beaten up by a group of monkeys, the monkeys suddenly run away. Grug begins gloating until he hears Chunky growl behind him.

Scenery Gorn: The further the Croods progress, the more destruction "the End" rains down on them.

Scenery Porn: The landscapes and overall animation in this movie are gorgeous!

Shipper on Deck: Belt ships Guy and Eep and tries his best to bring them together. He starts off small by pulling the two closer together when they're near each other to eventually throwing flowers around trying to get the two together.

The owlcat is what Stitch might look and act like if Stitch were allowed to be dangerous in the Disneyverse.

Show, Don't Tell: Strikingly used in scenes like Eep and Guy's first meeting and when Grug is painting his family on a cave wall alone. Averted in Eep's opening narration which can border close to being anvilicious.

Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Eep, who appears to have been designed to represent a Neanderthal incarnation of her similarly auburn-haired, emerald-eyed and freckle-faced voice actress, Emma Stone.

Team Pet: A lot of team pets actually, as the Croods discover that many animals are quite tamable and manageable. Grug gets a Macawnivore called "Chunky", Guy, his "pet" sloth Belt, they all get another trusty steed in the form of a Cat-Owl. Thunk manages a Crocopup called "Douglas" and even a young Ground Whale to ride.

What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: The Croods are chased by two separate large catlike predators, but the second and cuter-looking sabertooth tiger eventually turns out to be friendly and helpful to Grug when they need each other to escape certain death.

Thunk is supposed to be 9 years old, despite looking and sounding as old as Eep.

Would you believe that some say Gran is only 45?

Justified. They're cavemen, their lifespan are much shorter than current humans.

Unlike modern humans the Croods are having to push their bodies to the limit on a regular basis. That kind of wear and tear tends to age you faster than when you don't have to actively avoid death every five minutes of your existence.

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